The Legal Checkup Blog

Hot off the press from the State House News Service:

The Patrick administration has struck a $26.75 billion deal with the Obama administration that the governor says will set the stage for a "new round of innovations" in Massachusetts's health care system and that federal officials say will serve as a precursor to sweeping changes in the way health care is delivered in the Bay State.

The deal, a three-year Medicaid pact authorized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, represents a $5.69 billion, 26.2 percent increase over the last three-year deal, which was approved by the administration of President George W. Bush in 2008. The last waiver deal, a three-year pact approved in 2008 by the Bush administration, was valued at about $21.2 billion and hailed as a victory for state health programs by Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.

The new deal was reached last week when Patrick met with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in Washington D.C., and details were finalized in the days since the meeting, according to an administration official.

MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, provides 1.3 million low-income or disabled Massachusetts residents with subsidized coverage and has been a major part of the state's efforts to provide near-universal coverage.

Under the terms of the deal, also known as a Medicaid waiver, safety net hospitals in Massachusetts - including Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance - will be required to make major changes to the way they deliver health care in order to access a $120-million-a-year pot of funds. The changes include moving away from a health care system that pays doctors based on the volume of tests they perform, rather than the health outcomes for their patients.

Gov. Patrick has pressed lawmakers to act on a bill that would make this shift the norm in the Massachusetts health care industry, but the Legislature has deferred action until next year.

Under the waiver, Massachusetts will establish a pilot program aimed at expanding coverage for pediatric asthma services. This provision of the waiver closely mirrors a Medicaid program adopted in a state budget 18 months ago aimed at preventing unnecessary hospital admissions for pediatric asthma patients. The state will also "streamline eligibility procedures" for about 140,000 parents with children who receive food stamps, and the waiver also covers expanded "early intervention" services for children with developmental delays and disabilities.

Massachusetts officials also withdrew a number of requests, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which sent a letter to Patrick administration health and human services chief JudyAnn Bigby. The withdrawn proposals include integrated care for residents eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, which the Patrick administration plans to tackle independently.

The administration had also requested the ability to increase pharmacy co-pays "above allowable State plan levels" and to institute a co-pay for non-emergency medical transportation," according to the letter. The Medicaid waiver, a critical element of Massachusetts health care financing scheme, was due to be finalized in July, but negotiators sought a series of one-month extensions, unable to reach agreement as news of major pressure to cut federal spending dominated the dialogue in Washington.

Proponents of the deal said it would preserve the state's health care programs established in 2006, when Gov. Mitt Romney signed a health care law intended to guarantee access to insurance for nearly all Massachusetts residents. Since the law was signed, about 411,000 previously uninsured residents obtained health care coverage, and the Patrick administration estimates that 98 percent of all residents are insured. The cornerstone of that legislation, a health insurance exchange called Commonwealth Care, served as a model for exchanges included as part of the federal Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama nearly two years ago. Commonwealth Care helps enroll low-income residents in heavily subsidized private insurance plans. Commonwealth Care and a separate program that covers care for a diminishing pool of uninsured residents will receive $500 million a year, under the new waiver deal.

The Patrick administration has also committed to implementing all provisions of the Affordable Care Act by Jan. 1, 2014, when most major provisions of the federal law take effect. The waiver may carry some political significance heading into a presidential year, as Romney campaigns for the Republican nomination to take on President Obama. Romney has repeatedly been forced to defend the health care law he signed as an affordable plan that works for Massachusetts. But critics say the state's programs survive because of a broad lifeline provided by the federal government, a critique unlikely to be quelled by the major increase in Medicaid funding announced Tuesday.